happy (belated) 9 months

Holy cow, G, you're only three months away from a year!

I can't believe you're nine months old. I know I say that all the time, but since we've actually started to do a little planning for your first birthday party, it's really starting to hit me how old you're getting.

We had your well baby check up a couple of days ago. You're 21 lbs, 7 ounces (40-50%) and 29.25 inches long (80-90%). Long and lean! You didn't have to have any shots, but you did get your finger pricks for a blood test. I held you in my lap and you didn't even flinch. Unfortunately, your test came back that your iron is a little low, so we've put you on a multivitamin. It tastes awful, but you don't put up too much of a fuss about it.

You're trying so hard to become mobile, but you're not crawling yet. You can lean and stretch really far forward to reach something, and you can turn in circles while sitting. You're great at trying to get to me if I sit a little bit away. I've been taking you to the zoo, just the two of us, so you can interact with other babies at the playground. You'll sit and watch the babies inside the little padded infant play area, and I'm hoping their mobility will inspire you to get those knees under your belly. You don't know what to think about those little people who grab on you and try to steal your socks.

You stand fantastically, though. Maybe you'll end up walking before you crawl.

Still no teeth! You drool up a storm and gnaw on anything within reach, but those pearly whites are stubborn.

You sleep most of the night on your tummy. When Daddy puts you in your crib after nursing, you pretty much roll over immediately. We had to buy overnight diapers for the first time because you kept peeing out the top.

Speaking of nursing, my goal is to wean you within the next month. I'm afraid I might be getting cold feet, though. It's just so much easier to feed you from the boob; plus, it's free! You nap so well when I can nurse you down, too. We'll see how much I want to wean you might override my love of breastfeeding. You're such a snuggler that I'm not too worried about losing the closeness. I really hope you're always so affectionate. I can't wait until you give hugs and kisses.

But the biggest development this month was learning how to babble. You had an awful night on sleep on a Saturday and woke up that Sunday able to babble. Now you say mama, dada, baba, um-mum, and our favorite, blah blah. You'll just sit there, playing with a toy, and say, "Blah blah blah" over and over. Hysterical. You also love to combine the babbling with the screeching. There's a fun sound.

I can't wait to see what happens in the next month, G. I have a feeling it'll be a big one in terms of mobility and teeth!

And because I'm lazy and haven't taken some 9 month photos yet, here's a cute video of G being hyper and giggly before bed.